Process of treating cotton-seed.



UNirED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOIIN CHARLES WILLIAM STANLEY, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

PROCESS OF TREATING COTTON-SEED.

SPEGIFICATIQN fonning part of Letters Patent No. 675,423, dated June 4,1901.

Application filed December 24, 1900.

To all whom, it may conceive.-

Be it known that I, JOHN OHARLEs WIL- LIAM STANLEY, a subject of theQueen of England, residing at London, England, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in or Relating to the Treatment of Cotton- SeedHulls and the Obtaining of Certain Useful Products Therefrom, of whichthe following is a specification.

Cotton-seed after the ginning of the cotton has always a certainproportion of adhering fiber, and with this fiber and the hull isassociated a very material percentage of oil which it is desirable toremove not only on account of its commercial value, but also because itis detrimental to the fiber. Further, it is practicable to make use ofthe hull of cotton seed, and for some purposes the removal of the oilfrom the hull is very desirable. In order to secure the oil for itscommercial value and to render the cotton fiber and hulls serviceablefor purposes which would be impaired by the presence of the oil, I inthe first instance and by any suitable means separate the cotton-seedinto its main constituent parts, viz: kernels, hulls, and cotton fiber.While this separation may be effected in different ways and by variousappliances, I prefer to employ a sequence of dividing and siftingoperations, and for this purpose may make use of the apparatus set forthin my Patent No. 658,876, dated October 2, 1900. In these operations theseed is first cracked, but without crushing the kernels into the hulls,and is then threshed and screened, with the result that the greaterproportion of the kernel is separated as a meal from the hull and thefiber. A certain proportion of kernel or meal will, however, adhere tothe fibers and hull, and I therefore subject the material after siftingto a further separating process, as by t e apparatus of my LettersPatent No. 658,877, and thus secure every particle of kernel, which isthen mixed with that already sifted out, and the remaining materialpractically consists solely of hull and fiber, which have never beforebeen secured in this separated condition from the kernels. This materialcontains from eight to ten per cent. of oil, and to remove and securethe oil and separate the hull and fiberI grind up the two into a finemass. This mass is then sifted Serial Non 40,968. (No specimens.)

and the major portion of the hull is separated from the fiber; but therewill yet remain a proportion of fine ground hull in combination with thecotton, which cannot be separated by sifting or other mechanicaloperations. I therefore subject the material to a solvent which willdissolve the oil-as, for instance, benzene or bisulfid of carbon-and Ihave found that I thus not only extract the oil, but that the effect ofthe solvent is to secure the ready separation of the remaining, fineparticles of ground hull from the cotton fibers, so that after theremoval and evaporation of the solvent from the insoluble particlesgrinding and sitting will readily remove the hull material, leaving thecotton in a pure state and specially adapted, owing to the absence ofoil, for use for paper-making, &c. The hull being also freed from oil isspecially adapted for use for fertilizing purposes, as the hull-mealfreed from the oil is more efficient than that in which the oil ispresent, while the oil saved by my process amounts to from eighty to onehundred tons out of even one thousand tons of combined hull and fibertreated. After treating the material to dissolve the oil the latter isremoved from the solvent in any usual or suitable manner.

It will be seen thatinstead of grinding the kernels with the hulls orinstead of discarding the hulls, together with a large proportion of thekernels, as heretofore, I save the Whole of the kernels and also theWhole of the hull portion, securing'as a new product the comminutedparticles of hull freed from kernel and fiber, and that by the use of asolvent I also eliminate all the oil, securing it as a mercharitableproduct.

I claim as my invention 1. The within-described process of treatingcotton-seed the same consisting in first wholly separating the kernelfrom the hull and fibers, then reducing the hull and fibers together tominute particles, treating the ground material mechanically to partiallyseparate the fiber and hull, then subjecting the fibrous portions to theaction of a solvent and then separating the fibers and particles,substantially as set forth.

2. In the treatment of cotton -seed first wholly removing the kernelsfrom the hull and fibers and then after reducing the fiber and hulltogether to fine particles subjecting name to this specification in thepresence of the fibrous portions to the action of a solvent, twosubscribing witnesses.

separating the dissolved and undissolved nm- 3 terials and than actingon the latter to p JOHh CHARLES WILLIAM STAhLDY. 5 arate the fibrous andhull portions, substan- WVitnesses:

HAROLD WADE,

tially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my HARRY B. BRIDGES.

